Mount Saint Helens is one of the best ski or snowboard mountaineering trips in the Cascade Range. The open, treeless slopes above the extremely low timberline of 4800 ft (1500 m) allow numerous ski possiblilities with nearly infinite variations. The standard winter and spring route is the Worm Flows, which begins from the highest plowed vehicle access at the Marble Mountain Sno-Park (2700 ft / 800 m). This straighforward route follows trails through forest and then heads directly up the valley of the Swift Glacier to the crater rim. Slopes reach about 25-30 degrees near the rim, but it is easy to ascend on skis all the way up. A scenic camp is possible just below timberline at 4500 ft (1350 m), otherwise the trip can be easily done in a day by car camping at the parking lot. In April 1997, I skied this route with an overnight camp, and the views were spectacular, as the twin-tailed Comet Hale-Bopp blazed above the western end of the crater rim. Unfortunately, I had no camera at the time :-( . The trip report below is from April 2000, when we did the route as a day trip. Cloud formations this time were quite spectacular.

    More info about Mount Saint Helens and the various ski routes on it can be found in my online guidebook, Skiing the Cascade Volcanoes.

    Click on any photo to go there, or start your tour with the first photo...

Trip Summary: Sunday, April 30, 2000

This was a private trip, with a party of two (myself and Matt Swallows).
I skied on randonnee (alpine touring) gear, Matt used a snowboard.